ABSTRACT
Termination of any therapeutic situation should always be gradual, to allow the patient a chance to 'work through' the many anxieties and depressions that, in therapy as in life, associate themselves with endings. The psychotherapeutic group is a mirror not only for the patient but also for the analytic theorist, who can look in on this complex scene and note what he will. There are no limits to the possible descriptive subtleties open to him, and he may find himself exhibiting surprisingly different group models from those of his colleagues. The therapist's attitude is, in essence, a reluctance to accept an authoritarian role and a preference for working through and with the group with as little interference as possible. The conductor's aim is to wean the group from its leader-centredness. The departure of an old member, or his extrusion, also represents a distinctive crisis in the life of the group.
